#MeToo: Dalip Tahil was told to tear a girl’s clothes for rape scene, but he did this

The #MeToo movement in India is still going strong and the latest actor to partially open up about something he witnessed is veteran actor Dalip Tahil.

Dalip who was quite a name in the movies 20 years back, was once asked to misbehave with his co-actress, as the director of the unsaid film told the actor to tear off her clothes without the actress’ consent.

Tahil on the other hand, mentions that he did something heroic, by first refusing the act altogether and then confronting the actress.

The actor recalled to Hindustan Times, “Twenty-five years ago, I was doing a similar scene. It was one of those movies that had a rape scene. The director, whose name I won’t take, actually told me, ‘When you’re doing the scene, tear the girl’s clothes apart, do this and that, but we won’t tell her.’ I flatly refused! I said, ‘This is such an immoral thing to do.’ The girl was new, and she had to make a living. I went in the opposite direction: I called the girl and said, ‘Do you know this is what they’re planning to do?’ The director was aghast and almost ran away. The girl was so upset; she burst into tears and ran into a room.”

“In those days, there were no mobile phones, only the raw stock camera, and the director would be in charge. He’d never do it (film her consent), so we got the girl to come out, told her that there would be nothing that wasn’t planned or out of her comfort zone, and we did it. For many years after that, I didn’t do such scenes, until now,” added the veteran actor.